Daily Notes: Roy Oswalt to Make Rangers Debut
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Featured Game: Colorado at Texas, 20:05 ET
2. A Very Notable Other Game (With a Note on the MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Featured Game: Colorado at Texas, 20:05 ET
Regarding This Game, What the Big Deal Is
The big deal regarding this game is that 34-year-old right-hander Roy Oswalt is starting it for Texas.
Some Relevant Information Regarding Roy Oswalt
In terms of Roy Oswalt, these are facts about him:
• His most recent regular-season start was on September 27 of last year (box).
• His velocity was in the 88-92 mph range last season before back problems forced Oswalt to the DL. Upon his return, Oswalt’s velocity increased slightly, sitting more around 91-95.
• A free agent after 2011, he signed with Texas at the end of May.
• Two or three minutes’ worth of internet searches suggest that Oswalt’s fastball is probably sitting in the low-90s at the moment — or, at least that’s what it was doing in his second-to-last warmup start.
• He posted this line in a total of four minor-league starts between Double- and Triple-A: 15.1 IP, 13 K, 4 BB, 1 HR.
Impact Video Footage
Here’s a clip of Oswalt recording a strikeout against an extra in the movie called Roy Oswalt’s Comeback.
Impact Video Footage, Part II
Here’s some more footage, also from the totally real film called Roy Oswalt’s Comeback.
What You’re Thinking
Here’s what you’re thinking: “Is that Mark Curry, of ‘Hanging with Mr. Cooper’ fame, in that movie about Roy Oswalt?”
The Answer to That Question
Here’s the answer to that: “Yes.”
Facing Oswalt
Facing Oswalt, and also all the hitters on the Rangers, is left-hander Christian Friedrich. Here’s his entirely serviceable line: 45.0 IP, 21.8% K, 8.7% BB, 38.1% GB, 3.73 SIERA, 98 xFIP-, 0.7 WAR.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast
Per the results of our offseason crowdsourcing project, FanGraphs readers prefer Texas Radio (link).
A Very Notable Other Game
Note: as of early Friday morning, the identity of the MLB.TV Free Game for the day had yet to be revealed.
Milwaukee at Chicago AL | 20:10 ET
The very impressive Zack Greinke (87.0 IP, 64 xFIP-, 3.3 WAR) faces the almost as impressive Chris Sale (90.1 IP, 78 xFIP-, 2.7 WAR).
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee Radio.
Today’s Complete Schedule
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.8.
Note: the following Game Scores include the poorly conceived playoff-odds adjustment discussed in a recent edition of Daily Notes. Also note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Doug Fister | DET | 6 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 7 | PIT | A.J. Burnett | 19:05 |
James Shields | TB | 8 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 10 | PHI | Cliff Lee | 19:05 |
Jor. Zimmermann | WAS | 9 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 7 | BAL | Jason Hammel | 19:05 |
Jair Jurrjens* | ATL | 3 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 7 | BOS | Jon Lester | 19:10 |
Nick Blackburn | MIN | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 | CIN | Homer Bailey | 19:10 |
Andy Pettitte | NYA | 9 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 7 | NYN | Jonathon Niese | 19:10 |
Ricky Romero | TOR | 2 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 7 | MIA | Anibal Sanchez | 19:10 |
Ubaldo Jimenez | CLE | 0 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 4 | HOU | Lucas Harrell | 20:05 |
Chris. Friedrich | COL | 7 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 14 | TEX | Roy Oswalt* | 20:05 |
Zack Greinke | MIL | 10 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 10 | CHA | Chris Sale | 20:10 |
Joe Kelly* | STL | 7 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 4 | KC | Vin Mazzaro | 20:10 |
Jeff Samardzija | CHN | 10 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 2 | AZ | Joe Saunders | 21:40 |
Chad Billingsley | LAN | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 6 | LAA | Dan Haren | 22:05 |
Kevin Millwood | SEA | 3 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 4 | SD | Clayton Richard | 22:05 |
Tim Lincecum | SF | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | OAK | Jarrod Parker | 22:05 |
To learn more about Pitcher and Team NERD scores click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
that greinke-sale matchup, in my humble opinion, will be more exciting than the rangers kicking the rockies in the balls repeatedly tonight. also shields and lee should be fun to watch.
temperature’s supposed to be in the 70s in chicago tonight too. ball won’t be popping outta sox park.
And seeing how as I will be at Sale-Greinke, I won’t have to listen to Hawk to enjoy it.